Outrage grows over extention of Sun Kyi's house arrest

MYANMAR: Some 200 pro-democracy activists gathered in Yangon on Sunday to mark the 1990 election victory in Myanmar of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, as outrage grew over the extention of her house arrest.

Members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the face of the Nobel peace laureate, gathered at party headquarters, not far from the lakeside home of the democracy icon.

Aung San Suu Kyi was on Friday informed that she would spend yet another year confined to her house, which police barricaded with barbed wire late Saturday, witnesses said.

On May 27, 1990, the NLD won elections here by a huge majority, but the country's military rulers never allowed them to take power, and Aung San Suu Kyi has since spent most of the last 17 years in detention.

One activist, Htay Kywt, told AFP that Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters would hold a ceremony marking the election victory at midday (0530 GMT), before heading to a Yangon temple to pray for their leader's release.

"We will go to Shwedagon pagoda to pray for Daw Suu's (Aung San Suu Kyi's) freedom," Htay Kywt said.

"We will pass through any barrier," he added.

About 50 plainclothes police stood guard at NLD headquarters, many taking photographs and videos of the activists, witnesses told AFP.

At least 60 pro-democracy activists have been arrested in the past two weeks as they went to pagodas to pray for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, with 51 people still in custody.

Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett voiced deep sadness at Myanmar's extension of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention and called for all political prisoners to be released.

"It saddens me deeply to learn that the Burmese regime has extended her detention by yet another year," Beckett said in a statement.

"She has now spent more than 11 of the last 17 years in detention, and will next month spend her 62nd birthday in captivity.

"The Burmese government has insisted that it intends to restore democracy to Burma.

"But we cannot have any faith in their promises while Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 1,100 other prisoners are held for nothing more than expressing their desire to bring freedom and democracy to Burma."

Beckett added that the government must restore democracy and, "as a first step, demonstrate its stated commitment by releasing all political prisoners."

The United States, the European Union and human rights group Amnesty International have already condemned the extension of Suu Kyi's detention.

Earlier Military-run Myanmar has arrested six members of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, an activist said.

The six people, including a woman, were taken by authorities late Friday after going to pagodas in Yangon to pray for the release of the 61-year-old Nobel peace laureate, he said. "They were arrested for no reason," said the activist, who declined to be named.

The activist said the six arrested were members of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). The party won a landslide victory in 1990 polls but the military never allowed it to govern.

Around 60 activists have been arrested in the past week as they went to pagodas to pray for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, and the latest arrests brought the total number of people in custody to 51.

Yangon, Sunday, AFP